The road to socialism can’t be ridden on the wrong horse.

“I prayed for twenty years but received no answer until I
prayed with my legs.

Here we are in the midst of another national election cycle.
Here we are once again jostling for place and relevancy among the various
single issue campaigns and fringe groups, trying to get our voice heard in the chaos
and doing what we can to make money and members aka: surviving. And here we
are, pushing the same failed position of the “united front” against the fringe
right, and oddly enough supporting a party and candidate which, by any
standard, qualifies as “ultra right” in and of itself.

Make no mistake, despite wishful thinking to the
contrary in America we basically have a one party system- the capitalist party-
having two wings. The liberal wing is called the Democratic Party and the
conservative wing is called the Republican Party. Neither party is capable of
change on a systematic level but only of granting miniscule, expedient, and
convenient concessions easily taken back once no longer convenient. It’s not a
recent development, the American political system was designed to be largely
reactionary and ineffective, passing the least amount of concessions it can
bear and only at the behest of their capitalist masters like good little
puppets. But what can giveth can be taketh away just as easily. This is why
discussing the elimination of social security is on the table these days,
because Wall Street needs new blood and they sense a tasty new morsel with all
that potential investment money to squander and profit from. It’s why they’ve
even been discussing the elimination of Medicare and Medicaid. It’s why they’ve
already eliminated so many social programs. It’s because they are only
supported when convenient. They never would have dared to consider these
extreme ideas in the past, but things have escalated due to the loss of two
factors, the conditions which led to their creations.

These programs were created and supported on two
conditions- our competition with a functioning socialist alternative and
massive grassroots support for their creation and continuation. Neither
of these exists anymore, and in the case of grassroots support it is unlikely
it would even affect the election of either party without an electoral
alternative to threaten them with, and when they both agree on something we are
stuck with it. They have the chance to eliminate the programs and we have no
way to stop them. We have a government that can now act with complete impunity.
But how did it get this way?

Over the last 30 years the entire political compass
has shifted, and the Democrats are headed on one direction, my friends, and it
isn’t leftward. Starting in the mid 70’s the Democrats have been moving
rightward, being pulled in that direction by fanatics on the right who kept
trying to move the entire map right-ward, which is why the political “center”
is still objectively right-wing. The move to the right in the national sphere
started with Clinton, who would have been considered a Republican 30 years
prior, and that it is both an accident of history, and a booming economy that helps
people forget that Clinton presided over the wholesale destruction of nearly
the entire social welfare system in America. He’s also responsible for the
massive deregulation of the banking system that has brought us the last two
recessions and which, in time, may signal the beginning of the end of Democracy
here in America. Clinton not only deregulated like a champ, but there was also
his little adventure in Bosnia, where we intervened in a religious war between
Muslims and Catholics that was killing people on both sides. Not something
leftist would do. And let’s not forget the literally millions of Iraqi children
whose blood are staining his hands.

But that was almost 20 years ago, so where does the
present Democratic Party stand now? They’ve illegally assassinated American
citizens; they’re contributed to massive military adventures and humanitarian
crisis illegally and unconstitutionally. They’ve invaded sovereign countries
illegally. How does that make them any different than the Republicans? We’re
also still fighting two wars that are still technically illegal by the
constitution, still torturing people, Gitmo is still open, and whistleblowers
are being prosecuted at a record pace. And what about ACTA, a secret treaty
that the Obama administration refuses to divulge any parts of, illegally,
despite multiple FOIA requests they refuse to tell us about it. And this is
Obama, folks, not the republican boogeyman we had 10 years ago.

The fact of the matter is, things are worse now than under
either Bush or Clinton. We’ve got massive political suppression of votes with
voter ID and with the Department of Homeland Security orchestrating the local
police responses to the occupy movement. We’ve got massive invasion of privacy
issues, we’ve got illegal secret treaties that will destroy the internet as we
know it. We’ve got massive unemployment and their only idea is to make
construction jobs or give money to banks. We’ve got record deficits caused
largely by Bush era tax cuts that the democrats can’t even summon the courage
to fight with any energy. We’ve got the largest instance of political graft
ever with the Affordable Healthcare act, in which the government will now force
every American to buy private, for profit healthcare or be taxed.

Despite these facts, there are still some who argue that the
Democrats pose an alternative, that they are capable of real progression, that
their revolution by baby steps can eventually (in a couple of lifetimes of
wishful thinking I suppose), take us to the end goal of socialism in America;
and that the Democrats are somehow not to be included in the ranks of the
“ultra right”.

Here’s a brief glimpse into some of their so-called
accomplishments according to the CPUSA so-called “Political Action Commission”:

Affordable
Health Care Act extends coverage to 35 million uninsured people, outlaws
denial of coverage for pre-existing conditions and extends until age 26
the coverage of children under their parents’ plans.

Better to be called “Insurance company subsidy/
life support bill”, mandates that everybody help keep our broken,
for-profit system going by making sure we all stay enslaved to it for life, and
punishes us for not having insurance by raising our taxes. The problem isn’t
that we don’t have insurance, insurance agents don’t give our one pill. The
problem is access to healthcare, and the only acceptable response by the party
should be an unequivocal and resolute demand for single payer. It is an utter
disgrace that the party continues to support the bill, even upon the flimsiest
of arguments. Golden chains are still chains, and for-profit corporations are
still the enemy, or are we no longer communists?

Stabilized
the economy with $789 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that
saved or created 3 million jobs. Invested billions in clean energy jobs,
saved the auto industry.

Stabilized? Hardly. We’re still in the hole,
unemployment is still over 10%, we’re still bleeding jobs, and zero necessary
banking regulations are in place for when the next inevitable and identical
crash. Keynesian solutions to market problems need to be done with cash on
hand, not debt. What will happen is that our national debt will become larger
than our budget, and we’ll eventually have to either raise taxes (impossible
these days) or start cutting vital services. This bill is likely going to be
the death knell to all the Great Society programs, and possibly even the New
Deal ones.

Appointed
two women to the U.S. Supreme Court, including the first Latina woman, who
supports the rights of working people.

Race has nothing to do with political allegiance. What
he did is appoint another ant-abortion catholic who has a history of ruling
against a woman’s right to choose, and an inexperienced law professor who
opposes same sex marriage. They seem pretty status quo to me.

Ended
the war in Iraq and moved toward ending the war in Afghanistan.

Really? When did that happen? Quick, somebody tell the
tens of thousands of contractors and private security operatives that still
operate in Iraq fighting now in proxy and without the constraints of
international law. Also, hate to break it to you, but to-date the war in
Afghanistan is still booming, with over 80,000 troops still operating in
country. Obama only removed a token number of troops to make some of his
democratic supporters, who obviously don’t pay attention, happy.

Perpetual war? Illegal invasions? Invasions of
privacy? Secret treaties? Funneling taxpayer money away from social programs to
fund tax breaks to billionaires and bail out obsolete companies? Corruption,
inefficiency, theft, murder, torture, kidnapping, oppression, and brutality-
and all under the leadership of the promised candidate promising hope,
transparency, and a new beginning- is this what we want more of?

My friends this isn’t the road to socialism, it’s the road
to fascism, and the democrats are pushing the horses faster than the
republicans ever were.

Here’s my solution.

We need to break the two-party monopoly. However, in many
states it’s easier to just run as an independent than as a declared third
party. So run as a socialist independent. Do whatever it takes. We need
to get people used to real socialists in local elections, and running the
governments competently and effectively. Make the issue about the economy and
be reasonable. Sound like a moderate (because even a center left is closer to
the middle than a far right). In debates be the adult in the room. Once
socialists are in office they can run for re-election under a declared
socialist party of some type. This will put us on the map.

In other states we may need to challenge laws that keep
third parties off the ballots. An alliance with other third parties can help us
do this; make it about breaking the hegemony and expanding democracy. Organize
third party debates. Don’t run from the tea party, they’re in the same boat
with the Republicans as you are with the Democrats- sick of being used for
votes and then ignored once elected.

Remember in 1968, when the people wanted to end the Vietnam
War? The argument was whether a democrat, being more or less liberal, would end
the war. In the end it was a Republican, Nixon, who finally ended it. And it
wasn’t the ballot box that persuaded him to do so- it was the people on the
streets. And they weren’t getting permits to march or put up with police
oppression back then like we do now.

The point is to get to socialism- that is our end goal. This
will never happen utilizing the slavish strategy whereby we beg for concessions
bit by bit, and hope our overlords are in a giving mood. It will only ever be
accomplished if we stand up on our two feet, and we lead by example. We must be
the change we want to see.

Socialism will never arrive via the Democratic Party,
and it is foolish to try. We tried to end the Iraq and Afghanistan wars by
voting, and that didn’t even work. The DNC money poured into anti-war
organizations between 2003 and 2008 and our ranks were swelled and our coffers
were full. As a result the leadership of these organizations was filled with
people who bought the idea that, if only we had the right party in charge the
wars could be over and everything would be ok. So what happened? Obama won in
2008, the money dried up, and we’re still at war. Nothing has changed for the
better, and in some ways its gotten much worse.

Their dirty little secret is this: they need our votes
to validate themselves, but your vote does not obligate them to actually do
what you voted them to do. And once you do what they need you for, they drop you.
Which is why we are not only ignored now, but the leadership of these
organizations are still very weary to retain people critical of the Democrats.
Their job isn’t to lead these organizations, it’s to keep them in line with
mainstream politics, and to keep people who may be interested in an alternative
out of mainstream politics, or too frustrated to stay in activism. Their job is
to prevent change, not create it. Every time the leadership of an
organization puts party before principle the whole organization suffers.

On a personal note, it didn’t occur to me how bad the
problem was until 2007. I gave an anti-war speech in NH, and the video
ended up on YouTube. What I discovered, however, was that the main punch of my
speech was removed. My final statement was that if the democrats won’t end the
war, we’d find a party that did. Removed from my speech, it sounds like I was
supporting the election of a democrat out of principle, or that I was anti-war
because I was a democrat. Later, I discovered that following Obama’s election
the organization I belonged to saw their national budget shrink to almost
nothing.

It’s the little things that does much to
discredit an organization to its membership and makes it a slave to electoral
politics rather than principal. And a party that doesn’t stand for anything
really isn’t a party anymore.

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We need a vanguard Communist Party USA - one that rejects the Imperialist 2-party monopoly, stands on its own two feet and fights for the working class in honesty and integrity.We used to be that party, and we can be again. But first we must purge the cancer of revisionism and Browderism from our ranks, that would have us betray our fellow workers to the Imperialist ruling class for the chance to sit at the table with them. We must carve it out, and taking a cue from William Z Foster, save our party by expelling those that seek to poison it.